Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s37: XLVI Conclusion
Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s37
- Language
- English
XLVI Conclusion
v2.c26.s37.1
The Upaniṣads speak with the double voice of philosophy and religion. They represent the highest reality as Absolute and God, Brahman and Parameśvara. They speak of salvation as becoming one with Brahman as well as dwelling in the city of God. Negative descriptions of Brahman as well as positive characterisations, which are to be met with in the Upaniṣads, are also found in every great religious literature. The mystics, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, bring to us reports of the one darkness which is beyond what the tongue can tell; others relate to us the fullness of God. While the thinkers and mystics emphasise the illimitable character of God, the religious devotees look upon God as friend, helper and saviour. Every philosophy of religion has to take into account this dual nature of all religious experience and justify it. The problem which Śaṁkara set to himself, though it arises from the limited context of the religious experience as recorded in the Upaniṣads, has a universal interest, and the solution at which he has arrived seems a satisfying one, if all the elements are to preserve their equipoise. It is essentially a philosophical solution, since Śaṁkara lifts us, through the power of thought which alone can reconcile and ennoble the different sides of life, into the ideal of joy and peace. It is true that he admits that thought cannot solve all the problems, but stands in need of an intuitive grasp of reality. While Śaṁkara willingly bows before the mysteries of life, he does not hanker after mystery for its own sake. At the centre of Śaṁkara's system is the eternal mystery of creation, a mystery in which every movement of life and every atom of the world is implicated.
v2.c26.s37.2
If instead of regarding the world as something for the rise of which we cannot offer an adequate explanation, we at the same time, following the lead of some later Advaitins, dismiss it as a cosmic illusion which has somehow arisen to afflict us, deluded mortals of an evil dream, then the system becomes unsatisfactory. But such a view is hardly fair to Śaṁkara.
v2.c26.s37.3
Śaṁkara’s system is unmatched for its metaphysical depth and logical power. Thought follows thought naturally, until Advaitism is seen to complete and crown the edifice. It is a great example of monistic idealism which it is difficult to meet with an absolutely conclusive metaphysical refutation. Śaṁkara holds up a vision of life acceptable in the highest moments of poetry and religion, when we are inclined to sympathise with his preference for intuition to the light of the understanding. So long as he remains on this high ground, he is unanswerable. But a lingering doubt oppresses the large majority of mankind, who very rarely get into these exalted heights. They feel that it is unjust to leave in such high disdain the world in which they live, move and have their being, and relegate it to ajñāna or darkness, offering merely as a solace that all disagreeable appearances will quickly vanish in the eternal light. For them the all-transforming sunlight of the heights is spurious, and they declare that Śaṁkara’s system is one of mystical indifference to fact. That human suffering will be healed, that the whole world will vanish like a pitiful mirage, that all our trouble is of our own making, and that in the world’s finale all people will find that absolute oneness which will suffice for all hearts, compose all resentments and atone for all crimes, seem to many to be pious assumptions. The entranced self-absorption which arms itself with sanctity, involves a cruel indifference to practical life hardly acceptable to average intelligence. Śaṁkara knows all this, and gives us a logical theism which does not slight the intellect, does not scorn the wisdom of ages, and is at the same time the highest intellectual account of the truth.¹ What is the relation between the absolutism of intuition and the empirical theism of logic, Śaṃkara does not tell us; for, as Goethe wisely observed, " man is born not to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out where the problem begins, and then to restrain himself within the limits of the comprehensible." Śaṃkara recognises that there is a region which we cannot penetrate, and a wise agnosticism is the only rational attitude. The greatness of Śaṃkara's achievement rests on the peculiar intensity and splendour of thought with which the search for reality is conducted, on the high idealism of spirit grappling with the difficult problems of life, regardless of theological consequences, and on the vision of a consummation which places a divine glory on human life.
v2.c26.s37.4
¹ Cp. Plato : "If then, amid the many opinions about the gods and the generation of the universe, we are not able in every respect to render all our ideas consistent with each other and precisely accurate, no one need be surprised. Enough if we are able to give an account which is no less likely than another; for we must remember that I who speak, and you who judge of what I say, are mortal men, so that on these subjects we should be satisfied with a likely story and demand nothing more" (Timæus, p, 27, E.).
v2.c26.s37.5
Supreme as a philosopher and a dialectician, great as a man of calm judgment and wide toleration, Śaṃkara taught us to love truth, respect reason and realise the purpose of life. Twelve centuries have passed, and yet his influence is visible. He destroyed many an old dogma, not by violently attacking it, but by quietly suggesting something more reasonable, which was at the same time more spiritual too. He put into general circulation a vast body of important knowledge and formative ideas which, though contained in the Upaniṣads, were forgotten by the people, and thus recreated for us the distant past. He was not a dreaming idealist, but a practical visionary, a philosopher, and at the same time a man of action, what we may call a social idealist on the grand scale. Even those who do not agree with his general attitude to life will not be reluctant to allow him a place among the immortals.
v2.c26.s37.6
REFERENCES.
v2.c26.s37.7
CARPENTER: Theism in Mediæval India, Lect. VI. DASGUPTA: History of Indian Philosophy, Ch. X. DEUSSEN: The System of the Vedānta. DVIVEDI: Māṇḍūkyopaniṣad with Gauḍapāda's Kārikā. MAHĀDEVA ŚĀSTRI: Bhagavadgītā with Śaṃkara's Commentary. MAX MÜLLER: Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, Ch. IV. P. NARASIMHAM: The Vedāntic Absolute and the Vedāntic Good. Mind, N.S., 82 and 93. THIBAUT: The Vedānta Sūtras with Śaṃkara's Commentary (S.B.E.). Vidyāraṇya's Pañcadaśī. Ed. by Srinivasa Rao and Krishnasami Iyer.
v2.c26.s37.8
THE THEISM OF RĀMĀNUJA
v2.c26.s37.9
Introduction—The Purāṇas—Life—History and literature—Bhāskara—Yādavaprakāśa—The Pramāṇas—Implications of Rāmānuja’s theory of knowledge—God—The individual soul—Matter—Creation—Ethics and religion—Mokṣa—General estimate.